“Face Value: The Illusions of Power and Money” opens on November 7th 2021 at the New Orleans Old Mint and Jazz Museum. The exhibition is a collaborative effort from the art duo Generic Art Solutions (Tony Campbell & Matt Vis).  This show will examine the power structures surrounding money and the trust that we place in those institutions. The artists will embed their art into the coin room alongside the Old Mint’s collection. G.A.S.’s have produced a musical accompaniment to the exhibition, creating a compilation vinyl LP album of money-themed cover versions of famous songs in collaboration with the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts’ (NOCCA) Music department, featuring NOCCA high school student musicians. This concept album will dovetail into the students’ course work in collaboration with their Recording teacher Joe Ceponis. The project will give students experience in creating and publishing music. Cover versions are opportunity to reflect on the past and the present at the same time. The power of music can touch us differently with each play and each context we find ourselves. Similarly, money has a profound effect on us all, and has influenced musicians through time and place. This subject seen through the lens of song is endlessly fascinating, running through every possible emotion and perspective. This project allows the audience to reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has induced anxiety that is universal, and ultimately how this time flavors a younger generation’s cover versions.

History as a lens to examine power and its corruption has been a recurring theme in the work of Generic Art Solutions, a collaborative effort of Matt Vis and Tony Campbell. This New Orleans-based duo utilizes nearly every art medium as they examine the recurring themes of human drama and the (dis)functions of contemporary society. Always rooted in the performative, they play every character in their work.